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ARSION
Beginning ARSION (also coined Hyper Visual Fighting ARSION) was formed in November 1998 by Aja Kong. In its initial conception the major key figures in the company were ARSION founder, legendary wrestler Aja Kong, ARSION President ex- AJW businessman Hiroshi Ogawa, ARSION Manager ex wrestler Sakie Hasegawa, and ARSION trainer ex AJW wrestler, Mariko Yoshida. ARSION started with a small roster using some of AJW’s young talent in the form of Rie Tamada and Yumi Fukawa. Both girls had been heavily pushed as the stars of the future in AJW but had failed to gain the loyal following of their predecessors in AJW. In 1997 when several key players left AJW due to not being paid for months due to AJW loosing money in the Japanese Real estate crash Rie and Yumi left to follow Aja. ARSION also secured the talent of Candy Okutsu who was one of JWP’s main star wrestlers before retiring from wrestling due to back problems. Joining ARSION at it inception also were former LLPW wrestlers Mikikio Futagami and Michiko Ohmukai. Their first event was was held on February 18th, 1998 Tokyo to a sell-out crowd. The show was sponsored by BADboy clothing company and as a result the pre-show featured the wrestlers modelling BADboy outfits. Wrestling Style ARSION aimed at creating a new style within Joshi Puroresu. ARSION wrestlers trained every day and attend Pancrase's dojo every Monday, and Battlarts' dojo every Friday as a part of their routine. They learned pro-wrestling, Lucha Libre, and shoot style wrestling. The girls were taught a new stronger submission style grapple art. For smaller wrestlers who had a history of injuries from high risk moves and getting destroyed at times in matches from larger wrestlers the mat style meant they were able to work more competitively. Wrestlers that proved to adapt well to the style change and benefited from it included Candy Okutsu, Rie Tamada and Yumi Fukawa. Mariko Yoshida as ARSION’s head trainer also was a strong influence over the direction in the wrestling style of the company. An AJW veteran before joining ARSION, Yoshida was well versed in the aerial manoeuvrers of Lucha, having previously won the Mexican CMLL World Women's Championship title. The combination of strong mat style technique, lucha-inspired submissions, aerial high flying and Mariko's new look “Spiderwoman” wrestling outfits strongly reflected the lucha inspired style that was to become ARSION. Along with a technical style change more in line with traditional Joshi Puroresu in the 1970’s and 80’s was the inclusion of regular gaijin being used on the roster. Reggie Bennet and Jesse Bennet (the later repackaged as Bionic J) were wrestlers from America. Reggie was already well established in Japan after many successful years working with AJW. Wrestlers in Arsion also came from Mexico which complemented the directional style they had chosen. The Apache sisters Fabi and Mari became regular workers as did Ayako Hamada who made her Japanese wrestling debut under the ARSION banner on August 9, 1998. Struggles With the title belt on Mariko Yoshida, the promotion was in their prime. A lack of consistency in wrestling style amongst their wrestlers seemed to hurt the promotion as time went on. In 1999 in an attempt to boost audience numbers ARSION formed a pop group called CAZAI. Consisting of AKINO, Ayako Hamada, Candy Okutsu and Ai Fujita ARSION hoped to cash in on similar success that previous AJW pop/ wrestling mixes the Beauty Pair and Crush Gals had. CAZAI did not have the same musical talent of the predecessors however and failed to gain interest prompting the promotion split them up. In an attempt to re- gain an audience ARSION put the spotlight on CAZAI member Ayako Hamada, whose father was the legendary Gran Hamada. Ayako Hamada won the Queen of ARSION title beating Aja Kong in late 2000. By this time the style had changed to the more traditional fast work rate of Joshi puroresu elsewhere at the time. Ayako's title reign was unsuccessful in gaining back an audience. In 2001, Aja Kong left ARSION after a disagreement with management over the direction ARSION was heading. Aja Kong successfully sued Arsion president Ogawa for false advertising when he promoted her as being on a show two months after she had left. President Hiroshi Ogawa in June 2001 brought in Crush Gal, Lioness Asuka as the promotion's new booker. With ARSION still suffering from falling crowd numbers, Asuka sought to boost the ailing promotion by pushing herself and close friends Etsuko Mita & Mima Shimoda into the major storylines. With Lioness as booker the promotion switched to more story driven matches mixed with comedy relief as a way to try and reinvent itself. An example of the comedic influence in their wrestling increasing over the years was most prevalent in wrestler Futagami. Originally packaged by Aja as a new “Dynamite Kansai” with solid kicks and matching physique GAMI as she became known was primarily a comedy wrestler by ARSION’s closure. ARSION's End ARSION continued to struggle in 2002. New gaijin wrestlers Cheerleader Melissa & Taylor Matheny (runner up in WWE's Tough Enough) were brought into the promotion to create an American force with Bionic J. Another big blow for the organisation came in 2002 when Ayako Hamada left ARSION. Ayako Hamada, officially made it public that she would start working matches outside of ARSION to those in attendance to a show at Korakuen Hall on January 13th, 2002. President Hiroshi Ogawa then made an announcement about Hamada's resignation. Ayako left due to internal politics within ARSION. Hamada felt she had been blamed by ARSION management and some wrestlers as being the reason ARSION didn't draw crowds. She had been given a major push from 1999 -2000 without successfully establishing a large, loyal fan base. When Asuka took over the booking in June 2001, Ayako started to become a secondary player and felt she was being pushed out. Ayako moved on to work for GAEA where Aja Kong was also wrestling at the time. ARSION continued to falter and were eventually renamed AtoZ in 2003 by Yumiko Hotta who took over the promotion. Michiko Ohmukai, Mika Akino, and Mariko Yoshida left and formed the small indy promotion "M's Style" along with Momoe Nakanishi. Notable Alumni *Ai Fujita *Aja Kong *AKINO (noki-A) *Ayako Hamada *baby A *Candy Okutsu *Cheerleader Melissa (Melissa Anderson) *Faby Apache *GAMI *Hiromi Yagi *Lioness Asuka *Mariko Yoshida *Mary Apache *Michiko Ohmukai *Rie Tamada *Yumi Fukawa